European Union leaders arriving in Norway yesterday to receive the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize said the 27-nation bloc needs more integration and authority to solve its problems, including the worst financial crisis afflicting it since the union was formed.

The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso acknowledged the EU was "not fully equipped to deal with a crisis of this magnitude". He said: "We do not have all the instruments for an economic union... so we need to complete our monetary union."